Related

Avoid gallbladder surgery - eat your fruits and vegetables!
Surgery
is the most common treatment for gallstones: over 800,000 Americans have
their gallbladders removed every year. Although most studies of gallbladder
disease and prevention focus on specific nutrients in the diet, scientists
at the University of Kentucky Medical Center decided to take a broader
approach.

Sugary Beverages and Your Health
High uric acid levels in the blood is a precursor of gout. Those who drink 1-3 sugar-sweetened beverages per day were 51% more likely to develop hyperuricemia (high uric acid levels) than those who did not drink such beverages (this also from NHANES data).

Habits of normal-weight people
Compared to their normal-weight counterparts, overweight people ate more total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol and fewer carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. After measuring their subjects' body fat, the scientists further found that the more servings of fruit a person ate per day, the lower their body fat tended to be.

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Maintain your weight, avoid gallstones

Obesity is known to be
a strong risk factor, in and of itself, for the formation of gallstones.
We also know that rapid weight loss, like that seen in those who have weight-loss
surgery, is also a risk factor for gallstones. Those painful little stones,
often formed of cholesterol crystals, are more often seen in women than
in men, and studies of gallstone risks are often focused on women. The
latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine (2006;166(21):2369-2374),
however, contains a fascinating look at men's risk of gallstones.

These researchers, from the University of Kentucky, Harvard, and the
National Institute of Health (NIH) utilized data from the Health Professionals
Follow-up Study, a prospective study of 51,529 male health care professionals
who were between 40 and 75 years of age in 1986. After responding to an
initial mailed questionnaire, the study participants responded to follow-up
questionnaires every two years. Their height and weight were among those
items followed, as were diet and exercise.

In 1992, 24,729 men also reported on their intentional weight loss (if
any) in the previous four years. The questionnaire that year asked the
respondents to state, "how many times did you lose each of the following
amounts of weight" in the past four years: 5 to 9 pounds (2.3-4.1
kg), 10 to 19 pounds (4.5-8.6 kg), 20 to 49 pounds (9.0-22.1 kg), and more
than 50 pounds (over 22.5 kg). These men were then followed through 2002
and asked to report any diagnosis of gallstone disease.

For those men who were clinically diagnosed with gallstones, the researchers
compared the weight loss and gain amount and frequency of those who did
intentionally lose weight with those men whose weight remained constant
(within 5 pounds of their initial weight). They found that even after controlling
for known and suspected risk factors for gallstones, those men who intentionally
lost weight were at higher risk for gallstones. The risk increased with
more weight lost at a time, as well as losing and regaining weight more
than once. In fact, men who lost and regained more than 20 pounds (9.1
kg) had an increased risk of gallstone disease of 40%.

What this means for you:

This study is consistent with similar studies on women and gallstones.
If you're overweight, we know that you'll be much healthier at a normal
Body Mass Index. Yet dieting as most Americans practice it usually means
losing and regaining weight over and over again. Lose the weight and keep
it off, not by dieting, but by choosing a healthier lifestyle that includes
exercise and consistently choosing foods that are better for you. The
Dr. Gourmet Diet Plan®, available for free on drgourmet.com, was
designed to help you learn what healthy eating is, regardless of whether
you need to lose weight or just need to eat better.